ABSTRACT
Relations among the different religious communities in secular India, particularly between its majority Hindus and its largest minority, the Muslims, have always been uneasy. But by the end of 1989 they had slid to their worst state since partition. In 1989 alone more than 500 persons were killed—almost twice the toll for the preceding year—in a series of communal riots that erupted in several parts of the country, notably Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Riots broke out in towns with no history of communal disharmony and in remote rural areas, marking the beginning of a new trend. India is one of the very few developing countries to have enshrined the principle of secularism in its constitution. But the roots of communal tension lie in India's demographic and ethnic makeup as well as in its history.
